Maconaquah Schools

The MHS Boy’s Soccer team opened their season at Maconaquah Stadium on Tuesday night with their eyes focused on continuing the success and momentum that was established during last year’s sectional champion campaign. With several familiar faces from last year’s run, along with contributions from a talented freshmen class, the Braves started the season by hosting a talented Kokomo Wildkat squad. The Braves showed energy from the start, scoring the lone goal of the match just 10 minutes into the game. The goal came when Darwin Aguiriano lobbed a nice ball over the defense into the box where Luis Mendoza caught up to it before flicking it up over the outstretched hands of the goalie for the 1-0 lead. After taking the lead, each team controlled the ball well and each had several scoring opportunities. Back-to-back Colton Beebe corner kicks in the second half each resulted in narrow misses, just wide of the net. The Braves’ defense thwarted most Wildkat attacks, with goalkeeper Brody Kubly easily stopping any ball that made it past his strong defensive line. After the game, Coach Wilhelm said, “I’m always happy with a win, but we need to control the ball better and make the easy passes to our open teammates to move the ball down the field more efficiently. We have big goals this year and the boys are working hard to achieve them.” Coach Sparks added, “It was great to see some of our freshmen step up and help the team out with positive minutes in their first high school games – freshmen Cohen Beebe and Gideon Pier played great defense, Max Berryman came off the bench with some strong minutes at the midfield position, and both Martin Chaires and Diego Jimenez gave our strikers a breather and kept the defense on their heels while they were in the game.” “MVPs of the Match” – Joel Loshnowsky and Levi Merritt. The pair of center backs were all over the defensive end and up into the midfield, attacking the ball when needed while also falling back quickly when the Wildkats attempted to make offensive runs. Maximum effort all match from these two boys. The Braves are 1-0 on the young season and travel to Taylor this Thursday night at 7:30 PM for their next match.